Monday, February 13, 2017

Jerry and the Browns engaging in legalized theft

Sac Bee: On the eve of major pension changes that would crimp retirement benefits for new hires, a handful of California government agencies went on a holiday hiring spree.The Board of Equalization hired 25 new faces that week. Seventeen reported for their first day of work on New Year’s Eve.The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District brought on 23 new recruits between Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 of 2012. A spokeswoman said the department was racing to fill spots in a fire academy scheduled to begin Jan. 2, 2013.And the state’s pension fund itself welcomed 20 new employees that week, including two well-paid investment fund managers who started work on New Year’s Eve.Their timing was fortuitous.By beginning work in the waning days of 2012, the employees enrolled in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System just in time to gain a generous pension formula adopted during the dot-com boom of 1999 that allowed most public workers to retire at age 55.By contrast, most employees hired after Jan. 1, 2013, would have to work until age 67 to gain their full benefits.

Perfectly legal to use the union mandate to hedge changes in law. Also pure political corruption and theft when taxpayers have absolutely no due process. But, due process, for California, is whatever the union divinity decides, we have already seceded from the union.